Comments on: Entitlement reform would indicate maturityhttp://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2011/08/03/entitlement-reform-would-indicate-maturity/
Thu, 21 Jul 2016 07:57:19 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.5By: paintcanhttp://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2011/08/03/entitlement-reform-would-indicate-maturity/#comment-36136
Fri, 12 Aug 2011 15:01:19 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/?p=9735#comment-36136I just checked on online college degree program with a very obscure college. They want about $26,100 for a 13 to 16 month 90 credit per hour bachelors degree working at home with one’s own computer.

Entitlement reform won’t indicate maturity anymore than those who grabbed the inefficiently loaded lifeboats of the Titanic indicated public spiritedness.

It is simply that those in the boats have to spend a great deal of time for the rest of their lives arguing with themselves that their own welfare was somehow better for society as a whole. Good Luck trying!

There will be many more riots in the street. Its very difficult not to when one find oneself freezing to death.

]]>By: coyotlehttp://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2011/08/03/entitlement-reform-would-indicate-maturity/#comment-35868
Sat, 06 Aug 2011 11:14:47 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/?p=9735#comment-35868Anyone who believes this pack of trollops in Washington and many of our State Houses will responsibly address the current fiscal situation our nation faces has either been oblivious or is deluded. The concept or even perhaps the definition of statesmanship escapes this current class of elected representatives. Our political parties are only concerned with maintaining or grasping power(getting reelected). What they say and do is little more than smoke and mirrors.
]]>By: mjmayerjrhttp://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2011/08/03/entitlement-reform-would-indicate-maturity/#comment-35863
Fri, 05 Aug 2011 23:22:35 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/?p=9735#comment-35863@jwws9999 : Yes the economy has shrunk. But Government has not. And Government spending has gone up. At best, you are helping prove that the Government is irresponsible. Everyone else is losing their jobs, tightening their belts, yet the Government continues to grow and grow.
]]>By: dstrubehttp://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2011/08/03/entitlement-reform-would-indicate-maturity/#comment-35848
Fri, 05 Aug 2011 12:27:59 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/?p=9735#comment-35848The link to Larry Summers’ op-ed is broken. Please fix it or remove it.
]]>By: jwws9999http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2011/08/03/entitlement-reform-would-indicate-maturity/#comment-35790
Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:04:04 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/?p=9735#comment-35790funny how this guy doesn’t mention how much the economy has shrunk since 2005, affecting the percantage of government spending versus GDP. typical economist who only spouts off half the numbers to make their point
]]>By: Realist99http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2011/08/03/entitlement-reform-would-indicate-maturity/#comment-35783
Thu, 04 Aug 2011 02:20:05 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/?p=9735#comment-35783txgadfly: you’re not alone in the mistaken perception that Social Security is a form of insurance, where policy holders pay premiums that go into a big pot of capital reserves regulated in size so as to pay out forecast claims according to actuarial predictions.

It’s actually a Ponzi scheme. The first crop of people to get money from the Social Security system paid little to nothing (just like Bernie Madoff). The money they received came from younger people, who hoped that when they when they became older people, the younger people entering the system would then pay them. This works until the new money coming in becomes less than the money going out, which is what eventually happens in all Ponzi schemes. The Baby Boom generation is big. The generations behind it are smaller. The math is very straightforward. Absent some action, Social Security will collapse, just like the many smaller Ponzi schemes out there have.

]]>By: threeRivershttp://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2011/08/03/entitlement-reform-would-indicate-maturity/#comment-35782
Thu, 04 Aug 2011 00:52:13 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/?p=9735#comment-35782Just look at another Big Issue all the pols keep bringing up: the high cost of college. Obama talks about it all the time. 3 things. One, we probably have too many college graduates anyways. Two, more colleges could go co-op, I went to Northeastern and it took me 6 years but I paid a good part of my own way. Third, I suspect that college assistance is the reason tuition fees and college salaries of staff are so high and that it is government assistance that makes colleges expensive, if anything is. August 2 was very depressing.
]]>By: paintcanhttp://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2011/08/03/entitlement-reform-would-indicate-maturity/#comment-35778
Wed, 03 Aug 2011 23:51:15 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/?p=9735#comment-35778@txgadfly – 3 billion a year is not 1/3 of the federal budget.

@ the author:
What sort of entitlement reform do you have in mind? No one who talks about it dares to get specific. That’s the biggest problem with politicians. They love euphemisms.

It’s easy to target the disabled, the retirees, and those on welfare. Or are you talking about people who you don’t think need it because they have substantial means? That may be more of a myth than you realize. But I can think of a few exceptional cases where you might be right.

So many entitlement payments are recycled within the public housing system, the nursing home industry, the medical industry etc. and even in support of higher rents for what are never the best apartments or even good apartments in most towns or cities. Has the author ever seem low-income housing? I’ve seen subsidized apartments in a northeast city and in NYC and you don’t (rather the gov’t) doesn’t get much for the money even with some tenant contribution in many cases. If one could see some real figures about the true size of unemployment in this country it could be a substantial number of people who might find they can’t afford their homes and apartments. That would further undermine the housing and real estate market. Unless cities and towns were willing to change occupancy requirements – that could mean a nightmarish situation of millions of homeless people.

Suburbs will balk at increased density in single-family homes, condos and apartments because so many of the middle and upper income people like communities that are pristine and guarantors of their investment. They won’t bend to relax rules for those who seek market rate housing through landlords who always factor in extra rent for occupancy that exceeds the terms of the lease, even for extended families. It could also transfer the burden of housing subsidies to cities and towns that are already strained.

This is a very different period than the WWII era. The fact that gold is climbing is some kind of indication that many people are very well off and hoarding their money in unproductive bullion. The savings that many people had accumulated during the period of war rationing fueled the post war boom. Since it was illegal to own gold it went to savings bonds and bank accounts and supported the public debt and the currency. That’s what kicked in after the war and helped fund the baby boom years.

]]>By: txgadflyhttp://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2011/08/03/entitlement-reform-would-indicate-maturity/#comment-35775
Wed, 03 Aug 2011 22:58:13 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/?p=9735#comment-35775With nearly 1/3 of US Government spending going for the support of the current government in Israel, it is irresponsible to suggest entitlement reform can solve our problems. American citizens have been paying “premiums” for social “insurance” for over a half century on the assurance that the country would make good on their claims in old age or catastrophic disability. The USA has a very large multiple of the assets needed to pay these claims. Why is it necessary to default on obligations to taxpayers while we spend nearly 1/3 of the budget supporting a country that has paid nothing into our country? How can abandoning our own elderly and disabled be less important than supporting a country that has given us little or nothing?
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